A cylinder-fed weapon includes a weapon frame and a barrel. A cock is pivotally mounted on its shaft in the frame to swing about an axis perpendicular to the barrel axis and a trigger is also pivotally mounted on its shaft in the frame. The two shafts or the axes of rotations of the trigger and cock extend parallel to each other.
The cock can be pivoted or swung from its rest position, against the force of a cock spring, into a "cocked" position in which it is held under preload by a thereby stressed cock spring. The trigger can be rotated from its rest position, against the force of a trigger spring, into a position corresponding to firing-readiness condition of the weapon.
The weapon also includes a cylinder with several angularly equispaced cartridge chambers. This cylinder is mounted in the frame so that it can rotate about a cylinder-shaft axis which is parallel to the barrel axis.
A detent latch holds the cylinder in each firing position with a respective chamber aligned with the barrel. The detent latch engages drum recesses or catches formed along the periphery of the cylinder and the cylinder, accordingly, is capable of being stepped or indexed, i.e. advanced to bring succeeding cartridge chambers in line with the barrel.
The weapon also includes a chamber cover or loading flap swingably mounted on the frame by a shaft at the cylinder side which is turned away from the barrel. The flap shaft extends parallel to the drum shaft. The loading flap can be swung into a position, also referred to as a swung-out or open position hereinafter, in which the loading flap permits loading--in axial direction--of at least one thereby uncovered cartridge chamber of the cylinder. Conversely, the breech lock can also assume an in-swung or closed position in which loading will be precluded.
When the loading flap is in its swung-out position, the detent latch is disengaged from the drum catch. When the loading flap is in the swung-out position, the swinging or pivoting of the cock into the cocking position is prevented. Conversely when the cock is moved to the cocked position, the swing-out of the loading flap.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,768,190 describes a safety mechanism for a revolver with a cartridge cylinder. The lock unit in the prior art revolver is formed by a locking cam formation. The one end of the cam formation is arranged at a lever component of the trigger, which lever component extends towards the breech lock. The cam formation extends into corresponding openings in the shaft of the loading flap. The openings in the loading flap shaft are arranged in such a way that--when the loading flap is closed--the locking formation is displaceable and adjustable approximately in axial direction along the loading flap shaft, and thereby, the trigger can be brought into the ready-to-fire condition.
In contrast, when the locking flap is swung-out, the locking formation during pulling of the trigger abuts a stop surface arranged at the locking flap shaft. When the trigger is pulled to the firing-readiness position, the locking formation extends flat against a planar surface in a predetermined facing position with respect to a correspondingly planar surface or formation at the locking flap shaft. Accordingly, rotation of the latter and swinging-out of the breech lock are precluded. It can thus be ensured that the weapon can not be cocked during loading and unloading.
It is of disadvantage in this prior art safety mechanism that the lock unit is operative between the breech lock shaft and the trigger, while the weapon is cocked by swinging of the cock. Accordingly, the lock unit only indirectly acts upon the cock.